Missing Delivery Time in Merchant Center: How to Fix It

What this issue means

To show an estimated delivery date ("Get it by Thu") in Shopping ads and free listings, Google needs three pieces of shipping information for a product: a shipping price, a maximum handling time and a maximum transit time. When one is missing, Google invalidates the handling and/or transit time for that product. The shipping price still works, so the product usually stays approved, but it loses delivery estimates and the issue sits in your Needs attention list.

This is a warning-level issue for most stores, but delivery speed is something shoppers compare, so it's worth fixing.

Why it happens

• Shipping services were created without delivery times. Older setups and some app-created services include rates only.
• The feed sends a partial shipping attribute. For example US:::0 USD with no times, while separate time attributes are sent for some products only.
• Mixed sources. Account-level shipping has rates, and the feed has handling times (or the reverse), and the combination is incomplete for some items.
• Product overrides without times. A product-level shipping value overrides the account-level service, including its delivery times, so those products lose them.
• Handling time set but no transit time because transit was expected to come from carrier data that isn't configured.

How to fix it

1. Find the affected products in Products > Needs attention and open one to see which sub-attribute is missing.
2. Decide your real delivery times.
   • Handling time: business days from order cutoff until the package ships. Use 0 for same-day dispatch.
   • Transit time: business days from shipment to delivery for that service and country.
   • Cutoff time and business days: the time of day after which orders ship the next business day, and which days you ship.
3. Add delivery times at account level (recommended). In Merchant Center settings, open your shipping services and fill in the delivery time section for each service: order cutoff, handling time, business days and transit time (fixed, or using a transit time table by region). This covers every product the service applies to.
4. Or complete the feed attribute. If you manage shipping in the feed, include price and times together, in the order country, region, service, price, then handling and transit times, for example US::Ground:6.95 USD:1:2:3:5. Make sure every product has all of them, or none.
5. Check product overrides. Any product with its own shipping value needs its own times. Use a supplemental data source to add them to those items in bulk.
6. Platform specifics.
   • Shopify (Google & YouTube app): If shipping is synced from Shopify, the app may only send rates. Check the resulting services in Merchant Center and add delivery times there, or switch to managing shipping in Merchant Center if the app doesn't let you edit synced services.
   • WooCommerce: Google for WooCommerce lets you set shipping times per country during setup; check those are filled in. If you use a third-party feed plugin, add handling time fields or set times at account level.
7. Resubmit your data source if you changed the feed, then check that the issue clears.

Google added offer-level attributes in 2025 (shipping_handling_business_days, shipping_transit_business_days and carrier_shipping) that mirror account-level options for more complex setups. Most stores are better served by account-level delivery times.

How long until it's fixed

Account-level changes typically reprocess within hours. Feed changes apply after the next fetch or app sync. Google notes the Needs attention page can take some time to reflect changes; most stores see the warning clear within a few days. Delivery estimates may take a little longer to start appearing in ads because Google also models them from its own data.

How to prevent it

• Never create a shipping service without delivery times.
• Avoid product-level shipping overrides unless they include times.
• Review delivery times before peak season, when handling slows down.
• Keep your website's shipping policy consistent with these times; build one with our shipping policy generator.
• Validate your feed with the Merchant Center feed checker.

Accurate delivery estimates can help your listings stand out. Mercantads configures shipping services, cutoff times and transit tables for you. See our Merchant Center services.